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It is hard to overstate the brilliance of this early John Carpenter effort, and the influence it had on the modern slasher film. It isn’t the first film of its kind nor the best, but it is masterfully made (on a small budget with a small crew and tight schedule) and deserves a viewing even if you don’t much care for horror, or if you typically find slasher films predictable and unappealing. The movie opens on Halloween night 1963 in Haddonfield Illinois. We see through the craven eyes of a stalker, spying through a window on a sixteen year old girl and her beau. After sex the boy leaves, at which point our killer stalks and stabs the young girl to death. He emerges from the house and we discover he is the six-year old brother of the victim; his shocked parents remove his mask and he stands, staring silently, a bloody butcher knife in his hand. Fifteen years later Dr. Loomis (Donald Pleasence) sits through a tense car ride to pick up the grown boy, named Michael (Nick Castle), who has to be transferred to another facility. But what’s this? The killer escapes, murdering a truck driver in the process and stealing his overall uniform. He has found another mask somewhere, and he returns to cruise his hometown for unknown, sinister reasons. It will be another hour before we are delivered another human victim (although Michael does kill two animals, because he’s a sadistic psychopath), and in that time...

The Car is one of the more flagrant Jaws ripoffs (and everyone involved knew and owned this, at the time), although of course it takes place entirely in a land-locked, somewhere-out-West small town near a canyon. It might seem silly to think on all the ersatz Jaws movies we’ve been subjected to, but then again Spielberg’s 1975 fishy blockbuster broke the mold with its perfect balance of folksy Americana warmth and genuinely scary horror. The Car overshoots the mark in the first regard, and underserves on the latter. That said, the film hosts some genuinely spooky moments and I think i’ts a far better movie than its reputation holds. Single dad (and sexy moustache cop) Wade Parent (James Brolin) carefully courts teacher Lauren Humphries (Kathleen Lloyd), dropping his daughters off at school and heading into work as per usual on a sunny day. His cop shop is a warm, slowpoke kind of place, presided over by crusty Sherriff Peck (John Marley) and staffed with amiable officers including alcoholic Luke Johnson (John Marley) and laconic Deputy Denton (Eddie Little Sky). Today isn’t a typical day in the sleepy, dusty town: two bicyclists have been run off the road, and a hitchhiker has been similarly and gruesomely killed. Flying through the town and circling back to stalk specific residents, an ominous black car with tinted windows and no discernible motive begins wreaking havoc in the bucolic setting. Bodies start piling up and Parent is left trying to outwit a sinister, ruthless villain. It’s hard for...

  Scottish siblings Angela and Jackson (Florence Pugh and Ben Lloyd-Hughes) helm a sophisticated ghost investigation scam operation to keep themselves afloat. Angela is a university student in Psychology half-assing her way through her studies, preferring to get high and occasionally see to her aging, alcoholic grandfather (James Cosmo). In the family tradition Jackson too uses drugs to cope, but he’s the more agitated type: constantly thinking of new schemes while attempting to pacify gangsters to whom he owes money. The two are assisted in their grift by Jackson’s girlfriend Beth (Georgina Bevan) and Angela’s friend Elliot (Scott Chambers), who furnish ghostly recordings and slick camera work to convince their vulnerable clientele of the operation’s legitimacy. One day after performing a rote performance in a widower’s basement Angela spots an actual apparition, off camera. Shaken, she eventually assumes she imagined it thanks to whatever modern chemistry she’s ingested for the day. Soon after the pair receive a call from a Mrs. Green (Celia Imrie), who asks them to her manor house to rid the places of ghostly screams. Angela feels misgivings and tries to turn down the job; harshly, Jackson berates her. He cites his desperation for cash and invokes the reputation of their mother, a troubled soul who died by suicide and who, it is revealed, experienced contact with the paranormal herself. The four gear up and head out to interview with Mrs. Green. They discover that the decrepit property host to a series of foster child murders; more incredibly still,...

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  Scottish siblings Angela and Jackson (Florence Pugh and Ben Lloyd-Hughes) helm a sophisticated ghost investigation scam operation to keep themselves afloat. Angela is a university student in Psychology half-assing her way through her studies, preferring to get high and occasionally see to her aging, alcoholic...

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At midnight of the centennial of sleepy coastal town Antonio Bay, a small but threatening series of paranormal disturbances trickle through the spring evening. A slow-moving, supernaturally-glowing fog rolls inland, and three men on a trawler are accosted by silent spirits. Meanwhile at the radio...

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Hard on the heels of the successful and comedic game-changer Anchorman, Adam McCay and Will Ferrell once again team up for another half-slapstick, half-surreal niche comedy. Rather than a knuckle-dragging send-up of NASCAR and the American South, Nights instead serves...

The Stepfather is a 1987 horror film that spawned two fairly campy sequels and one remake; it was Stepfather II that first introduced me to the franchise. At the time, covertly watching late-night cable at a friend’s house, I was just...

Having just watched The Meg at the drive-in last week, I was discussing he film with a friend last night. In explaining the movie to a third party listening in, my friend simply said, “It is what it is.” I...

On a test run of the world’s first nuclear submarine (USA! USA! USA!), Commander Pete Mathews (Kenneth Tobey) and his jovial Merry Men crew run across a spooky, large sighting via their sonar equipment. The mass overtakes and strikes the...

Southbound (2015) So, horror anthologies. Let’s face it: they’re corny. While I understand their appeal, I’m usually not compelled by the typical fare they consist of: sci-fi “gotcha” vignettes, spoooooky morality twists – or simply, relentless cruelty. This film uses...

Synopsis: five orphans room together while attending Central Florida College; nights they moonlight as the rock band Dragon Sound, and wage battle with drug-dealing motorcycle ninjas operating out of Orlando. Yeah. Yeah, you heard right. Miami Connection is one of...

According to its Wikipedia entry, 1981 Italian film Great White (alternate title: The Last Shark) had only a short theatrical release in the US before it was pulled “after accusations of plagiarism of Jaws“. You don’t say? The film doesn’t only rip-off Jaws – and...

Until I watched The Shallows I guess deep down I didn’t think we had another good shark film in the tank (yuk yuk). I mean we really lucked out with Jaws: a horror-drama rather than true eco-horror, well-paced with perfect humor...

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